Where We Have Been
by SorrowsFlower
Summary: She could turn to him in the darkest moments and trust that he would make her feel better with a cup of coffee and a cheesy, innuendo-laden joke that would make her roll her eyes at him and smile inside at the same time... 50 Sentence challenge that I set for myself, Caskett based on random word prompts (25 more to go!)


Apparently, my thoughts are too fragmented to form an actual fic, so I've taken to doing a 50 sentence challenge. Sentence, used loosely in this case, since most of these are almost paragraphs (I can't help it, I get a little long-winded when it comes to Castle - there's just too many adjectives for their lives). Please forgive the scatter-brained chaos of the timeline, since I've watched and rewatched the whole series several times (except for season 8, which I have yet to see), and plot bunnies have no consideration for timing, so it's all over the place, but here it is:

1-9 are pre-Always, 10-14 are obviously after they became a couple, 15 onwards are kinda AU, following on the time-traveler-predicted timeline.

That being said, I only got to half (25 out of 50) because I ran out of juice, so if anybody would be so kind as to provide any words or prompts, since I have been getting random words all this time. Also, reviews, please, which are food to my birds (haha, get it?... I know, corny, but that's me at 12am).

Disclaimer: Ha! You're kidding, right? 'course I don't own Castle. I don't even own the TV I watch it on.

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 **1\. Photograph 1, set during Under The Gun**

Looking at the old photo, Castle was filled with a strange hollow longing to see all sides of her, every facet, every memory - he wanted to sit beside that tall gangly, awkward kid in the beat cop uniform, laughing from her perch on the hood of the patrol car... to be the one she smiled broadly at from under her cap, bright eyes sparkling with admiration and promise.

 **2\. Photograph 2, set post-Knockdown**

He wished he could have met the teenager in the old photo from the collection: fifteen-year-old Castle would have fallen head over heels for this young Katie Beckett, and he could just imagine himself, following her around the schoolyard, hanging onto her every word, acting the part of court jester just to get her to notice him... which, when he thought about it, was not unlike what he did everyday now.

 **3\. Teen, set months after Knockdown**

The fifteen year old Katie Beckett in the picture had long, unruly brown hair that curled around her nymphet face, her hazel eyes - those beautiful siren eyes Castle never could decipher - emerged from behind the thicket of hair, achingly vulnerable and fiercely defensive at the same time, and her cupid's bow lips - those lips that he would taste only once many years later and crave for months on end - were turned down like a bruised rose, into the perpetual impertinent pout of a teenage girl.

 **4\. Smile, set during that AWESOME hotel scene in To Love and Die in LA**

Castle didn't want to hear her talk about Royce, but at the same time, he did... because whenever she talked about her memories of him, her face would soften, her voice would grow quiet and just the slightest bit wistful... Castle didn't think it was possible to observe such a profusion of happiness and sadness in a person's face at the same time - yet there it was, etched in his partner's heart-breakingly beautiful smile.

 **5\. Outsider,** **set again in that love-eyeballs scene in To Love and Die in LA**

It galled him to think that he might be jealous of a dead man, but with Beckett and Royce, he knew he would always be an outsider...no matter how amazing their partnership was now, Royce had been there first, had been there for her when she was first trying to find out what had happened to her mother, when she had taken her first faltering steps towards becoming a detective... and despite her casual dismissal of that phone call with Royce nearly a year ago, Castle knew: Royce had been her first love.

 **6\. Eyes, still that scene, which is a cornucopia of plot bunnies**

His eyes were so blue, and deep... God, his eyes were so deep, just looking into those ocean eyes made Kate feel as if she were drowning, as if she were being gently enveloped by a warm undertow and she was left with that strange, sweet breathlessness that sent little shocks of awareness through her body - she'd never felt anything like it before him, and now she felt it every time she looked into his eyes.

 **7\. Trust,** **set anytime between season 3 and 4**

She could put her life in this man's hands in a shootout or a bombing, and trust that he would have her back... she could tell him about her mother's case and trust that he would understand what it meant to her; she could turn to him in the middle of a frustrating case and trust that he would have a wild, outrageous theory to offer - which, oddly enough, would turn out to be true half the time; she could turn to him in the darkest moments and trust that he would make her feel better with a cup of coffee and a cheesy, innuendo-laden joke that would make her roll her eyes at him and smile inside at the same time... if she was being completely honest, it was herself she couldn't trust, not with the way she felt whenever she was around him.

 **8\. Walls**

It was as if something inside her reached irresistibly toward him, drawn to his strength and warmth, his child-like wonder, desperately wanting to accept the comfort he offered. And she wanted to, oh how she wanted it, wanted _him_... but she had worked too hard to build her walls, and they had become too vital to her job, to her sense of self... and so up her walls went, snatching that wayward part of herself and hemming it back in - safeguarding the heart that had felt too much pain, and yet remained stubbornly and hopelessly gullible enough to entrust itself to him.

 **9\. Absence, set post-Headhunters**

More than once she had wondered why - why did she keep him around when he barely spoke a word to her anymore and his blue eyes were cold and flat when they met hers, when she didn't even like him anymore, or when a little piece of her died whenever she saw him with that floozy flight attendant; hell, even after he'd dropped her for Slaughter she'd kept him around - but the answer, to her, was always clear even if she refused to admit it... no matter how bad things got with his presence, she knew it could never be worse than his absence.

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 **10\. Chocolate, set anytime season 6**

She swipes a little bit from the rim of the bowl with her finger and he watches, breath held and mouth dry, as she licks it off, smiling in delight at the sticky sweetness until she feels his eyes on her and she turns, displaying her exquisite profile, and crooks her finger at him... and as she kisses him, he hums in appreciation because he loves chocolate, but chocolate on her tongue, blending with the taste of her, is decadent perfection.

 **11\. Geography**

He maps her body, learning her unique topography with his hands and tongue : from the well between her collarbones, over the hills of her breasts, filling the small crater at the center of her chest, along the planes of her stomach, trailing the crest of her hips, down to the valley between her endless legs, all the while loving the way each curve and surface shifts and tilts and dips, until her earth - _his_ earth - quakes, shuddering under him, moaning his name.

 **12\. Rain**

She had no idea how it had happened - one minute she had been staring miserably out the window at the gloomy weather... and the next, he had dragged her outside and they were dancing in the rain like a couple of crazies, soaking wet and having the time of their lives.

 **13\. Bottom**

That buffoon Jones from Robbery had the gall to tease him at the police picnic that he'd heard Castle was "a bottom" kinda guy... he'd only had one answer to that: hell yeah, he was a bottom, who wouldn't be, when the woman on top was Kate Beckett - a comment which had shut Jones up and had earned him a small secret bite on the earlobe from said woman on top.

 **14\. Shopping**

He should have known from her closet full of heels and clothes (not to mention that particular drawer of sexy lingerie, which was his definite favorite), but nothing could have prepared him for the sheer number of shopping bags he had been forced to lug around, while Kate and Alexis traipsed the mall for their bonding-time-slash-prepping-for-the-premiere-of-the-new-Nikki-Heat-movie... but it was worth it, hearing his wife and daughter laughing together, clearly having a good time, even if they _were_ laughing at him.

 **15\. Name**

 **'** Rosalind' was his Mother's idea, Esposito had suggested 'Gabriela' or 'Teresita' and sputtered when Castle had teased him about his telenovela addiction, Ryan liked 'Kathleen' or 'Jenny', and Beckett had vetoed "Cosmo" with an emphatic no, but Alexis' choice - taken from a novel she had read - won and in the end, their daughter was christened Johanna Yancey Castle.

 **16\. Nickname**

It had started when they managed to fit the baby into the halter strapped to Beckett's chest, and Castle had remarked that it reminded him of a baby kangaroo in the mama kangaroo's pouch - and while Beckett didn't appreciate being compared to a kangaroo or approve of him butchering their daughter's name , she had to admit, Joey Castle did sound cute.

 **17\. Trip, kinda AU**

Of course the precinct would be their one-and-a-half-month old child's first field trip, and of course, everyone went crazy over her: within minutes, Joey had turned Espo into a pile of goo, Ryan into a fount of baby care information and tips they didn't really ask for, and the Captain - the tough, austere "Iron" Gates that her father couldn't melt - into a cooing, simpering marshmallow.

 **18\. Cake**

She knew the kitchen would pretty much look like a demolition site the way it did whenever Castle tried to bake (he was an excellent cook, but baking was his culinary Achilles heel), their four-year-old daughter had chocolate smeared all over her face and hands, their ten-month-old son had batter in his hair, and Alexis, home from grad school just for this occasion, was trailing flour over the carpet... but to Kate, the mess didn't matter one bit as she gathered all her Castles, big and small, into their bed to feast on their masterpiece and her birthday surprise, her favorite homemade chocolate cake.

 **19\. Phone, kinda AU**

When Joey was four, she had always raced Uncle Espo or Uncle Ryan to answer the phone for the opportunity to put the bulky receiver to her tiny ear and say "NYPD. Detective Castle speaking" - her father got a kick out of that and encouraged her to do it as often as she could, and though her mother thought it was cute, she had been less than pleased when the caller phoned back and she got reprimanded by Captain Gates for being unprofessional.

 **20\. Children 1, set in time-traveler-predicted timeline**

Joey was the ring leader of the little gang of cop kids who littered the precinct on weekends or whenever there wasn't school: "The Weekenders" and "The Three Musketeers", her father had called them: Joey Castle, Simone Esposito and little Tommy Ryan.

 **21\. Children 2, set in** **time-traveler-predicted** **timeline**

Grandpa Jim's namesake, James - more affectionately known in their family as Jamie - was following their father's footsteps by establishing a reputation as a writer and school playboy - he had inherited their mother's keen attention to detail, which came in handy as editor-in-chief of Marlowe Prep's school newspaper, and their father's charm and literary talent, not to mention his baby blues, which made all the girls at Marlowe Prep swoon.

 **22\. Children 3, set in** **time-traveler-predicted** **timeline**

Marie, who had been born Marie Rosalind Castle (their parents had finally closed their eyes and let Martha have her way with their youngest's name) had put the voice and versatility she had inherited from their mother, the grandiose tendencies she had gotten from their father, and the red hair and acting talent, both of which Gram had already taken credit for, to good use playing the Little Orphan Annie, and had been hailed a theatrical prodigy at the tender age of ten.

 **23\. Steps**

Being the only Castle who had become friends with Kate Beckett before having her as a parent, Alexis had seen sides of her that none of her other children ever had - Alexis had been the first recipient of advice and wisdom doled out from experience, and the two of them had taken the first steps together, Kate toward becoming first a stepmother then a mother, and Alexis toward _having_ a mother - at least one who was actually there when she needed her.

 **24\. Dishtowel**

Whenever Joey pitched in on one of her father's bizarre, outlandish theories, garnishing it with even wilder theories of her own - diabolical white mice, telepathic unicorns, possessed gym shorts, nuns working for the CIA, and on one case that included a robbery, a team-up of the Hamburglar and the Pink Panther trying to steal John Travolta's toupee from Hairspray - her mother would give her father a meaningful look and say Joey was "a chip off the old block", and her father would then flick a dishtowel at her, making them all laugh and giving Joey a feeling of bubbling warmth inside her chest.

 **25\. Witness**

Alexis' career as a private investigator was thriving, and had even nurtured not only her professional life, but also her love life, seeing as how her "short interview" with a witness had turned into drinks after the case was closed, which had then turned into a dinner date, before finally becoming a full-fledged three-year relationship... just two weeks ago, she and Teddy had announced, to many tears from Castle and hugs from their Martha and Beckett, that they were engaged.

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Thanks for reading, please help me out with word prompts, pleeeeeease...? And reviews, pretty please? Feed the birds!


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